Monday, July 1, 2013

Bashing in Bluefield

 It's still very early, but the Bluefield Blue Jays have been mashing Appalachian League pitching so far.
The Jays improved their East Division lead with a 6-3 win over Danville last night.
Bluefield leads the Appy :League in batting with a .282 average. They're tied for the league in doubles, and lead in triples, home runs, and runs. They also lead in slugging and on base percentage.  Bluefield has an .839 OPS in this young rookie level season.
   Individually, Mitch Nay and DJ Davis have been on fire in leading the Bluefield attack.  Nay, a sandwich pick in last year's draft, had his pro debut delayed until this year because of injury, and the former Arizona Gatorade HS player of the year is quickly making up for lost time.  Hitting cleanup in the Jays' lineup, Nay is off to a .351/.442/.486 start, and is tied for the club lead with Davis for RBI with 9.  Davis, the Jays' first choice in the 2012 draft, is hitting .302/.362/.512, with 4 triples.  Davis, of course, is repeating at Bluefield this year, but if he keeps up this kind of production, he won't be there for long.
   Catcher John Silviano has played in only 4 games thus far, but has hit a pair of home runs, including one that landed in the front yard of a house across from the Pulaski ball park.
   The pitching, for its part, has not kept pace with the team's hitting. A pair of Canadians have fared well on the Bluefield staff thus far, though.  Tom Robson, of Ladner, BC, has surrendered no runs and only 1 hit in 8 IP, while Shane Dawson of Drayton Valley, AB, has struck out 13 Appy hitters in 12 innings, and has a 0.58 WHIP.  With pitchers like Chase DeJong, Alberto Tirado, Adonys Cardona, and Zac Wasilewski on staff, it's only a matter of time before the team ERA begins to drop.
   For an organization that has been known more for drafting and developing power arms in the past few years, it's nice to see some raking going on.
 

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